'I'm waiting for the fix': Newmarket protesters demand long-term-care solutions

Demonstrators rally outside Newmarket-Aurora MPP and Health Minister's office

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 14, 2020
Lisa Queen

Holding a card that read “For my husband,” Markham senior Margaret Calver stood outside the office of Newmarket-Aurora MPP and Health Minister Christine Elliott and pleaded for help for long-term-care residents.

“(My husband) is totally helpless. He’s in a wheelchair. It’s heartbreaking to see him. He was walking on March 22, but because of the neglect and lack of stimulation and everything else, he’s ended up in a wheelchair,” she said.

“I’ve been married for 60 years to this man. He’s the love of my life.”

Calver was one of two dozen protesters who demonstrated outside the Newmarket constituency office of Elliott on Oct. 8 as part of a provincewide call to action to address shortfalls in long-term care.

A study from the National Institute on Aging found, as of May 6, 3,436 seniors and six workers died in long-term-care homes in Canada during the first wave of COVID-19. That represented 82 per cent of the country’s pandemic deaths at that time.

Now in the second wave, the protesters argued Premier Doug Ford has failed to resolve problems that gripped long-term-care homes last spring.

“Ford said ‘I’m going to fix long-term care.’ Well, I’m waiting for the fix,” Calver said.

Her husband is in the secure advanced dementia unit at Markham’s Markhaven Home for Seniors, which had one of the worst outbreaks of COVID-19 in the York Region in the spring.

Saying her husband’s unit has only two personal care workers for 21 residents, Calver said it’s “disgusting” the provincial government isn’t doing more to care for its most vulnerable seniors.

The Ministry of Long-Term Care is committed to the safety, dignity and well-being of residents in long-term-care homes, with every resident having a plan that supports their medical, nursing, personal support and other needs, spokesperson Tanya Blazina said in an email.

“The ministry knows that staff in long-term-care homes are the backbone of the sector and is committed to supporting long-term-care homes and staff working to stop the spread of COVID-19,” she said.

The government has taken a number of steps, including committing $243 million in emergency funding for staffing, supplies, and capacity. The ministry is working to develop a comprehensive staffing strategy for the sector by the end of the year, Blazina said.

The government has also invested $461 million to boost the wages of personal support workers in different health settings, including long-term-care homes, and has announced almost $540 million for renovations, infection and control and personal protective equipment in long-term-care homes, she said.

But the protesters insist the government’s actions aren’t enough.

“As a front-line worker, I’m tired of empty promises,” Susan, a nurse in a York Region long-term-care home who didn’t want her last name published, said.

“As a front-line worker, every day I can see the shortages.”

Patty Coates, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, said the government continues to ignore long-standing deficiencies in long-term-care homes.

“They had all summer to make plans, to make it right, and they did not,” she said, adding for-profit seniors’ care needs to end.